Lapa Card: A Smart Membership Card for Authentication, Payments, and Directional Marketing

The world is becoming a place where everything is connected and where everyone expects to use their daily objects to interact with the digital ecosystem in the most safe and seamless manner. This article proposes a smart BLE/NFC membership card system – the Lapa Card –, which can be associated with any company, club or loyalty program. It enables users to physically check-in and safely process payments by acting as a physical authenticator that combines with other authentication factors (e.g., biometric) to seamlessly validate transactions with the highest safety standards. Also, it connects with a network of Gateways to support a directional marketing platform that automates promotional events by proximity. The developed system is able to safely process transactions with the highest safety and minimum friction, and is also able to perform directional marketing in the physical world with good responsiveness while protecting the users’ privacy.